I’m not a programmer. I know very little. When I first took this job years ago, this wasn’t part of it, now it’s been thrown in my lap and basically I have to figure it out, or quit. My timeframe isn’t short but it’s not long enough that I can take a class to figure this out.

I like this version of the game. While big fans of MtG won't since the deck options are limited I don't mind it at all. It gives a nice interface with a good selection of decks without having to get into the endless rat race of booster packs and special cards that has always eventually turned me off of CCG games in the past.

If you like playing magic, this is way better than no magic, that's for sure. And it costs less than a draft on modo / your local FNM. I played the crap out of the first DotP game (58 days according to my 360voice profile) - and I play a lot of paper magic too. It's a good compliment, and a great way to hone your skills. I also found myself enjoying the metagame - as limited as it was.

Keep in mind, most metagames for tournament formats devolve into only a handful of cards and decks being playable. If you played the old DotP you know that certain decks (the original five decks with mono for example) weren't anywhere near as competitive as the other decks you would unlock. Some decks could not win at all against Vampires or the blue/red Niv-Mizzet concoction (if the other decks didn't get mana screwed). Now that we can remove cards from the deck, some decks should be more able to compete.

I am really looking forward to unlocking all the cards, and then figuring out optimal builds for these decks.

So I jumped in last night and grabbed DotP 2012. I was a huge fan of the first Duels of the Planeswalkers game, so I was really curious to see how they would improve it. I do play a fair amount of real magic, and as such I have fairly high expectations as to what a magic game should be. This game comes as close to meeting those expectations as any magic game I've ever played.

I'll be linking any card names to the WotC gatherer site, so you can reference them as needed.

I had a few reservations but they were unfounded. This game is a good deal better than the old version, and if you have played magic before - don't worry, you've got some pretty interesting cards to play with. There's still some downright terrible wall of wood like cards out there, but they don't have to remain in the deck anymore!

Right off the bat, you're given the choice of two decks. A white weenie deck with equipment, and a mono-green stompy deck. Mono green typically gets outclassed by pretty much everything - stompy is one of the most basic strategies - so I stuck with the white weenie deck.

Right off the bat, I'm seeing cards like Serra Angel and Stoneforge Mystic - halfway decent cards? In the first deck??? That's a nice way to start! The mystic didn't really have too much goodness to search up so I grabbed a Strider Harness but then started falling behind as my opponent started peeling earth elemental after earth elemental, and played some red spell that looked like pyroclasm... and I fell behind and never caught back up. Restarted the duel and he kept a one lander and my weenies overran him. Sweet!

Progressing through the single player game, I was impressed by the quality of the decks. The fourth deck in the game is a green/blue concoction featuring a lot of fast mana, coiling oracles, ramping into big things like Lorthos the Freshmaker and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Keep in mind, this is less than an hour in. I'm really impressed with these decks. I'd be curious to see how much newer players may struggle, but this is way better than playing generic 2/1 with no abilities into a generic 3/3 for 4, with a lightning bolt and a lava axe thrown in for good measure. This should keep more dedicated magic players in for longer.

I ran with the blue/green deck after unlocking it, and didn't see anything I liked better come available.

I was only able to play for about two hours last night, and had to tear myself away.

There is allegedly ten decks available total. I suspect as with the last game, there will be one deck that you don't get to play.

The unlockables are pretty good too. After winning my first game with the esper deck, I unlocked three Golem's Heart - you'll remember these from the old game if you played it. However, unlike in the old game, where you'd unlock one at a time, this time if you get multiples of the same card, they unlock at the same time. Very cool! No more wading through the crap to get the good cards in the deck active.

And as previously mentioned, the deck builder is much improved. You are forced to have a minimum of 60 cards in the deck, and you can't take cards intended for other decks to build whatever you want (which is kind of unfortunate, but it should stop the online play from becoming degenerate). Cards you unlock are automatically put into your deck. Decks are sorted by converted mana cost, and you can get some basic statistics (cost, color quantity) while determining what to add / cut from your deck. So when you unlock those Assault Zeppelids, those Giant Octopuses get stuffed into the never going back into the deck again pile --> Where they belong.

I did try to play a game of Archenemy - but with two computer players, it wasn't very much fun. If anyone is interested in trying out some archenemy this weekend, I would be down for joining in.

I also hope the puzzles get more challenging. The first few were extremely basic puzzles such as 'understand how to regenerate your creature' and 'block this trampler with two creatures, and then swing with your flier for the win'.

Holy Shit, Nintendo just one upped Sony. The new controller let's you play the game you were just playing on the TV on the go.

Say hello to the $200 controller!! Can't wait to buy 4 of them and then have the kids break one!

I take it they didn't announce the price for the controllers?I really like the idea of it but I can't see spending more than $100 for a controller - and even then, it'll take a LOT of really awesome games for me to make the plunge.

The Ozzy Osbourne 8-Pack will include classics from the recently re-released Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of A Madman, including “Mr. Crowley”, “Diary of a Madman” and “Over the Mountain”. Fans who purchase the pack will also be able to play “Bark at the Moon” and “Mama, I’m Coming Home”, both of which are only available as part of the pack, and both of which include built-in Pro Guitar/Bass upgrades at no additional cost.

Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation®3 system (May 31):

• “Bark at the Moon” X (available only as part of the 8-pack)• “Diary of a Madman”• “Flying High Again”• “I Don’t Know”• “Mama, I’m Coming Home” X (available only as part of the 8-pack)• “Mr. Crowley” X • “Over the Mountain”• “Steal Away (The Night)”

Pay close attention to the release date for this DLC, as content is scheduled to release on Thursday May 19th, rather than the traditional Tuesday launch date. We have some server migration scheduled next week, so you should expect to see this batch of DLC on the 19th.

Thanks for the ideas - unfortuantely my cards are so old I don't have or never heard of half the stuff you guys are talking about lol. I started playing when the game originally released, so my cards are the original Alpha or beta or whatever that was called. A few from the first expansions like Ice Age. No dual lands or fancy pants stuff like that

If you actually have Alpha/Beta (black bordered) cards, or cards from arabian nights/antiquities/legends/the dark - you should seriously check out a site like starcitygames.com and get an approximate value of them. There's a lot of cards from that era that I would be interested in buying them from you or trading you quite well for cards you would actually use.

I typed this up for the burka thread, but I felt it diverged too far from the original topic.

I have often felt that in america, people tend not to learn from the lessons of history - at least not the scientific lessons, and would rather obliterate any possibility of bad incidents ever happening again. We've seen it after september 11th (which the burka ban - is a continuing part of that aftermath, however indirectly), and now we're seeing it after the BP oil spill and fukushima.

BP - as a result, we now have a 100% ban on new offshore drilling facilities. Even though if it were to happen again, WE HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA HOW TO FIX IT NOW. Science - it's awesome! Hell, it's not even hard science, it's trial and error science - the kind that most of us know the most about, having grown up and learned most of what we know from trial and error. The reality of $4 a gallon gas isn't even enough to make people say 'lets drill it up baby!'

Fukushima - as a result, we have pretty much full-stopped on building any new nuclear facilities - Even though the nation is 100% committed to nuclear power, as a cleaner, cheaper alternative to coal. It's not like we can take the 100+ facilities we have offline and replace them immediately. If a natural disaster were to hit any of these (and no place is safe from a natural disaster) - what would we do? I am confident we can do a better job containing it thanks to the lessons learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima. It just seems like paranoia and fear rule the day more than logic and reasoning.

A lot of this is 'citation needed' - I don't really know everything that's gone on in the wake of these disasters - but if we refuse to learn from them, how will we ever grow as a people/nation? It's a lot like 'planes crash, so no one fly'

Simply put - halloween is one holiday where 'bad things' could happen anonymously. Everyone's in masks - and if you're looking for 'batman' who left a package on the subway or bus, it's quite challenging to track him down.

How do you prevent that?

If you're France, you outlaw Halloween.

Not sure where you're going with these what if statements as you're really just reinforcing my belief that France is being silly and short sighted.

I'm not really sure either. It's been an entertaining day at work, that's for sure

They really have graduation ceremonies for Pre-K??? WTF? Are they going to give them all a 1st place ribbon next? I don't know how to feel about this, I mean, moving from Pre-K to kindergarten isn't an accomplishment...

I didn't really think about this before, but if burka wearing females in france decided to ... i don't know, drop off some 'packages' in subway stations - they could get away with it because the security camera wouldn't really catch their face.

If they banned the burka for that reason, would people disagree?

how does that stop them from doing so? hiding their identity doesn't prevent them from "dropping off a package". And the usual goal of a suicide bomber doesn't normally include escape.

And if you're using profiling and stopping anyone wearing a burqua, you've just now made EVERYONE who lays something down in the subway a potential suspect.

Who said they were suicide bombers? It'd be easier to recruit bombers for multiple missions if they didn't have to suicide.

Additionally, Captain Foresight cares not for your logic!

When folks think of muslim terrorist bombings, the first thought is almost always "suicide bomber".

But I hardly think demanding that folks not wear burquas is going to allow them to effortlessly catch the non-suicide version of a muslim terrorist. That is unless french technology has yet to come up with the concept of the ski mask, lowered baseball cap or high collared jackets?

Captain Foresight seems more like Sergeant Short Sighted.

I am playing a good deal of the what if game - and I feel like going a bit deeper here. (For the most part, I believe people to be generally good)

Simply put - halloween is one holiday where 'bad things' could happen anonymously. Everyone's in masks - and if you're looking for 'batman' who left a package on the subway or bus, it's quite challenging to track him down.

How do you prevent that?

Quote

This is the equivalent of prohibiting Native American tribes from performing ceremonies in traditional dress because of the threat it poses to Boston tea shipping.

I didn't really think about this before, but if burka wearing females in france decided to ... i don't know, drop off some 'packages' in subway stations - they could get away with it because the security camera wouldn't really catch their face.

If they banned the burka for that reason, would people disagree?

how does that stop them from doing so? hiding their identity doesn't prevent them from "dropping off a package". And the usual goal of a suicide bomber doesn't normally include escape.

And if you're using profiling and stopping anyone wearing a burqua, you've just now made EVERYONE who lays something down in the subway a potential suspect.

Who said they were suicide bombers? It'd be easier to recruit bombers for multiple missions if they didn't have to suicide.

I didn't really think about this before, but if burka wearing females in france decided to ... i don't know, drop off some 'packages' in subway stations - they could get away with it because the security camera wouldn't really catch their face.

This for America. Don't care if it takes a Constitutional amendment to do it.

Why would this be a good thing?

Why does an idea get immediately shot down simply because of the OP? I have plenty of stupid ideas...

I'm not a fan of the burka --- I think it's a symbol of muslim women's oppression by their religion. It shouldn't be banned because it's a religious symbol - rather, it needs to be banned because the Muslim religion is extremely ass-backwards towards women. It's an educational issue more than a religious one. Women who aren't allowed to show their face are being oppressed - they're being stripped of their individuality.

Of course, this is coming from a religion where females aren't free to marry who they want, and are often traded for livestock, ammunition, and iPads. It's just another symbol of Religion being used for population control.

Yeah.... guess it's time has come. I guess there's still four episodes left?

I thought this week's ep was the best in quite a while (even though you could drive trucks through the plotholes). The UNO scene was great --- too short though. Who didn't want to see some hard-core uno throwdown Chuck-style? (No - instead lets see the somalian cheat right on the first turn) A dramatic comedy scene cut way too short.

On Saturday, French police arrested around 60 people who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban which had been called by a Muslim group in Britain. One of the protestors was arrested on his arrival from Britain, a police spokesman said.

Not only are they banning burkas, but you're BANNED from even PROTESTING it.